Mailbox Monday ~ February 10th

Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.

After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.

I didn’t get a lot of reading done last week but there were a few new additions to the audio and print to-be-read piles.

I spent a lot of my time fighting with the computers in my house. I’m setting up a new system for my husband and it’s refusing to talk to either of the printers on the network and mine got hit with a persistent piece of adware that is defying all attempts at removal. It’s very frustrating and time consuming but better that this happens in the winter when I have extra time since it’s been too cold to even think about doing much outdoors.

Print Books

The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith from TLC ToursBased on traditional Vietnamese ghost stories told to the author by her Vietnamese grandmother but updated to reflect the contemporary ghost of the Vietnam War, here is a mesmerizing collection of thematically linked stories, united by the first and last story of the collection.

Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh from VineFuturistic hardboiled noir. An addictive genre-blend of a thriller: the immersive sci-fi of Ernest Cline; the hard-boiled rhythms of Don Winslow; the fearless bravado of Chuck Palahniuk; and the classic noir of James M. Cain.

Audiobooks

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates from Random House AudioFrom the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon from Random House AudioWest Hall has always been a town of strange disappearances and legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who was found murdered in the field behind her house in 1908, a few short months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie, drove her mad.

Yup, they are. That’s why this post went up late. When I went to write it last night the antivirus was screaming at me and a trojan downloader was trying to reinstall the adware. And all this stems from installing an (innocent) piece of freeware from c/net. I could, and probably should, write a post on the dangers of doing that!

I’m 2/3 of the way through Anna Quindlen’s latest novel, Still Life with Bread Crumbs. I am a huge fan of her novels, but this one is not nearly up to par. I foresee a 2.5 out of 4, an unheard of rating based on her previous novels.

I hope the computer issues resolve sooner than later. What a pain! Enjoy your new books. And for what it’s worth, I can see why women might enjoy Quindlen’s book more than men. I’m not saying its better or worse than her other novels though since I’ve only read two others and those were ages ago.
Have a great week – I hear we may reach the 30s later this week – a heat spell 😉

Mary, you obviously haven’t been following my blog. Although I’m married with children and grandchildren, I seem to have some kind of female gene when it comes to books (and movies, it turns out). I have loved all of her novels (although her last one was a little sub-par), but this one just doesn’t make the excellence grade. I will be very interested to see everybody’s reviews to see if it’s everybody or just me.

Unfortunately my computer is going to need a windows reinstall, that malware is deep in the registry. Good news though, I got the wireless printer working. And there’s always an audio book to listen to while I install software. 🙂

Leslie, I also received The Frangipani Hotel. It will be interesting to be on the same tour as you. Enjoy all of your reading this week! I’m still thinking about the gorgeous bird photos you posted this weekend.

At least you understand enough about computers to try and fix it. I just relegate it to my husband because it takes him about 5 minutes to fix problems that stump me. I rarely waste my time anymore 🙂 Winter People is showing up a lot this week!